The US has 5% of the worlds population, and 25% of the worlds prisoners.
We imprison a greater proportion of our population than the despots of the world.
Are our streets safer? Nope.
Is crime less??? Nope. (and that’s not considering the high dollar value of the Wall Street variety).
Lower taxes? Only if you’re rich.
I guess as Americans, we just need someone to hate.
This time, it’s the $20 million high-tech fenceless border fence, which is now being dumped less than three months after being implemented as a technology demonstrator.
Morons.
Once upon a time, there was a company called Microsoft, and it was a bad company.
One day, they created a music shop, called MSN music, which was even worse.
Then the bad people at Microsoft created the the Zune* store, anddecided to Dump MSN Music.
So, effective August 31, 2008, Microsoft is pulling the DRM keys on the music:
MSN Entertainment and Video Services general manager Rob Bennett sent out an e-mail this afternoon to customers, advising them to make any and all authorizations or deauthorizations before August 31. “As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers,” reads the e-mail seen by Ars. “You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008. If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play.”
This doesn’t just apply to the five different computers that PlaysForSure allows users to authorize, it also applies to operating systems on the same machine (users need to reauthorize a machine after they upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista, for example). Once September rolls around, users are committed to whatever five machines they may have authorized—along with whatever OS they are running.
So you bought it, you paid† for it, and now you have nothing.
This isn’t just Microflaccid, this is what the music and movie industries want to be their business model.
You buy the music, and then they change the rules, and make you buy it again.
*Yes, this was bad too.
†And probably overpaid for it.
Murray Dobbin has an interesting perspective on the “harmonization” and “integration” of Canada with the US, Americanize Me? No Thanks. He thinks that it’s ill advised, and his first example is quite illustrative:
Now we find out that despite recommendations from the Canadian Pediatric Society and the Canadian Cancer Society that Health Canada dramatically increase the recommended daily does of Vitamin D, the federal agency refuses to do so. Why? Because it is committed to “harmonizing” Canadian nutrition standards with those in the United States.
The interesting thing about Vitamin D is that there are two sources for this, diet, and sunlight, as the human body manufactures it when the skin is exposed to ultraviolet.*
Given the specifics of Canada, further north, less sunlight, the idea that they would need more dietary D is abundantly clear.
More generally, he finds America as a government completely dysfunctional†, America as a society paranoid morass generally bereft of morality†, and America as an economy as an “emerging economic basket case on pace to self destruct.”†
It’s a good read, particularly for Canadians who need to deal with Stephen Harper style boneheads.
*It’s why we have white people in the world. The layer in the skin that manufactures vitamin is beneath the pigment layer, so paler people make more Vitamin D for a given amount of sunlight, so in light starved regions, it favors the pale.
†I Agree
Well, they just had a special election in Missouri’s 1st congressional district.
No one got an outright majority, but the Democrat, Travis Childers, got 49% of the vote to the Republican Greg Davis’s 46%.
There is still a runoff, but note that in this this district Bush beat Kerry 62.24% to 37.03% in 2004.
The fact that a Democrat was going to the runoff is encouraging. The fact that the Democrat won the plurality of the votes is astonishing, particularly considering the fact that the RNCC outspent the DNCC by more than 2:1.
The cynic in me wonders how Dems will screw this up in the next 4-½ months. It will be difficult, but somehow they will manage.
Microsoft Office documents do not comply with the ISO’s newly adopted OXML* Standard.
It appears that Microflaccid’s “Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish” also covers standards developed by Microsoft for the benefit of their marketing department.
It’s part of their DNA.
*When it became an “ISO standard” the 2nd “O”, for “Office”, was dropped.
Airbus has filed a patent for what it considers an innovative trijet design.
What they are arguing is that three smaller engines will weigh less than two larger ones, that the noise from the third engine will be mitigated by the “trough” created by the tail configuration, and that the smaller engines will allow a shorter and lighter landing gear.
I don’t think that it’s going anywhere, because the two jet/three jet question has been answered now for some time, the additional maintenance, etc. just ain’t worth it.
As to the supposedly innovative idea of using the tail to mask the signature of rear mounted engines:
It’s been around for a while.
The trial of Thomas Kontogiannis, the money man/money launderer of the Duke Cunningham scandal, appears under some sort of government blackout.
The government is saying that the details of the case, which are normally public record, are government secrets, because the government says so.
So very little of the plea has been revealed.
Given the history of the state secrets privilege, it was created in the 1950s, and the US government lied to the court in the case establishing the precedent, United States v. Reynolds, I’m inclined to think that this is more Bush DoJ shenanigans.
They are probably covering up for other corrupt Republicans, Rep. Lewis comes to mind.
You can read it here:
I am committed to make investments to find the causes of autism, including possible environmental causes like vaccines. I have long been a supporter of increased research to determine the links between environmental factors and diseases, and I believe we should increase the NIH’s ability to engage in this type of research. My administration will be committed to improving research to support fact-based solutions, and I will ensure that the NIH has the staff and funding to fully explore all possible causes of autism.
Just to be clear: the vaccine-autism link is a hoax.
The doctor who came up with it was in cahoots with the lawyers, and he had a patent on a junk science alternative.
He is now in the process of having his license to practice medicine stripped.
Today, since they’ve been off the update for a while, I’d like to welcome back a monoliner insurer, specifically AMBAC which lost even more money than forecast, $3.6 billion.
However, they are looking to turning things around. Specifically, they have their “lawyers and forensic experts”looking at 17 big money losing contracts, targeting (it appears) Bear Stearns and First Franklin. The max losses were originally seen at 10-12%, and now they are staring down the barrels of over 80%, so they may have a good case.
We’ll be seeing a lot more of this, and insurers won’t be paying out in the near term without this sort of teardown of the contract and investment looking for evidence of deception of some sort.
In related news, bondholders recovery on bankruptcy has plunged, with B+ bonds going from around 42¢ on the dollar to less than 10¢.
This is not a liquidity crisis. It is an insolvency crisis.
The Fed, however, is still treating this as a liquidity crisis, because there is no cure for an insolvency crisis but the dissolution of the entities involved, and it will auction another $75 billion in Treasuries in exchange for pieces of the big sh%$pile.
Speaking of the sh%$pile Moody’s just downgraded 1,923 residential mortgage backed securities in the past to days.
It’s likely to get worse. Robert Shiller, who is one of the creators of Case-Shiller housing index, believes that house prices will fall more than 30% from their high, and likens this to the slump associated with the Great Depression.
In terms of the more general economy, we have UPS saying that it’s seeing a dramatic slowing in the U.S. economy, and in its business, and Target’s write offs on its credit card sales are soaring. They are at an annualized rate of 8.1% for March (ouch) up from a rate of 6.8% in February (ouch x2).
In currency, we already know about the Dollar cracking the $1.60 barrier, but now we are seeing a price hike driven by this, with Airbus raising prices on its planes.
We’re going to see a lot more currency driven inflation.
I have been an involuntary student of conditions on the Autism spectrum by virtue of my son having Aspergers (see here, here, and here), so I have looked at the evidence (see here and here) and it is clear that there is no link.
I’ve also lambasted people who are putting their community and children at risk, because they are stupid and unthinking, which would, of course, include McCain’s claim that there is an explicit link.
Well, now we have Obama saying that the science is not yet settled on Autism and vaccines. While he does so in the context of promising additional funding for early interventions (BTW, Hillary was first on suggesting funding for this), by promoting this junk science, junk science that has sickenes thousands of children in the US every year, he pisses me off.
There are (very small) risks to vaccines, which is why the US government has a vaccine fund, but Autism is not one of them.
The anti-vaccine folks should be treated with nothing but disdain, much like the nut-job Mullahs in Northern Nigeria who sabotaged the polio eradication project because they thought it a secret plan to sterilize them.
Mark Begich will be running against Ted Stevens.
It’s been pretty much a done deal since February, and considering the fact that Stevens has gone from Uncle Pork to criminal in the voters minds, it’s a reasonable chance for a Dem pickup.
It helps that Begich is Mayor of Anchorage, as he will have an organization there, and around 45% of Alaska’s population live in the city, and around 57% of the population lives in the greater Anchorage metro area.
His campaign site is here.
So, Reps. Neil Abercrombie, D-HI, Lynn Westmoreland, R-GA have decided that a Congressional investigation of the college football bowl system is warranted.
They are missing the bigger point, which is that the US taxpayer is funding NCAA Division I sports are not a non profit activity, they are a for profit activity in which a cartel of institutions have conspired to prevent their employees, so-called “student atheletes”, from being paid, and for which alumni donations are tax deductible.
Every time that I think that the Bush Administration can’t get any more self serving venal and incompetent, they rais the bar.
This time, it’s the worst National Security Adviser ever, shortly to be the worst Secretary of State ever, Condoleeza Rice, who has just basically called Muqtada al-Sadr a c@cks#cker.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocked anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a coward on Sunday, hours after the radical leader threatened to declare war unless U.S. and Iraqi forces end a military crackdown on his followers.
Rice, in the Iraqi capital to tout security gains and what she calls an emerging political consensus, said al-Sadr is content to issue threats and edicts from the safety of Iran, where he is studying. Al-Sadr heads an unruly militia that was the main target of an Iraqi government assault in the oil-rich city of Basra last month, and his future role as a spoiler is an open question.
“I know he’s sitting in Iran,” Rice said dismissively, when asked about al-Sadr’s latest threat to lift a self-imposed cease-fire with government and U.S. forces. “I guess it’s all-out war for anybody but him,” Rice said. “I guess that’s the message; his followers can go too their deaths and he’s in Iran.”
This from a woman unwilling to announce her visits to Iraq in advance, who spends her whole time in a heavily fortified walled city, and has something like 1000 soldiers, and an equal number of mercenaries protecting her.
Un f#$@ing believable.
Because he just suggested that bankers salaries be capped by legislation to $124,010, the highest pay for civil servants, because they are taking so much federal aid.
My guess is that if actual legislation requiring this were to start through Congress, he would condemn it, it’s a pose to show that he is an iconoclast, but we live in strange times.
GW Bush’s popularity is now has a 28% approve and 69% disapprove ratings, the worst ever.
The previous low was held by Harry Truman in Jan 1952 of 67% disapproval, and no doubt the 28% dead-enders will make comparisons, but the Avignon president is no Harry Truman.
66% of Republicans still approve of his job, once again showing C=MI*, though if they are true to form, they will all pretend to have hated him for most of his term within 18 months of his leaving office.
The pathological need to support the person in charge is a disturbing part of the human makeup.
*Conservatism=Mental Illness
B-2 Bombers are flying again after their “safety pause” (let’s not call it a grounding).
Also, according to Aviation Week, while grounded, orders went out for an undisclosed component to be inspected, which is believed to be a part of the flight control system.
It could be an air data sensor, or an actuator, or something in the stabilization augmentation system, or pretty much any sensor or actuator in the flight controls, but my guess (and my record on this sucks just as badly as everything else) is something in the fuel system associated with center of gravity management.
According to the BBC, Al Queida is upset, because Iran is accusing Israel of committing 911 to get the Americans to invade Iraq and other places.
They did it, and they want credit for it.
The Onion, March 31:
9/11 Conspiracy Theories ‘Ridiculous,’ Al Qaeda Says
You gotta be $#@$$ing me…Nostradamus had nothing on these guys.
Both on the numbers, and the response of the MSNBC reporters and anchors. But neither of those prognostications were a stretch.
There are maybe one of two of you out there who recall a couple of posts (here and here) just under a year ago about Thielert, a company that seemed to be on the verge of “great things” with its line of turbocharged diesel commercial aircraft engines.
While the tech might still be first rate, and it does sound so, the company appears to be in serious financial, and possibly legal, trouble.
It appears that the company may be very near insolvency, either through booking non existent orders to puffing up the balance sheet, or through customers who are seriously late in making payments for products that are already shipped.
My money is on the second, as two (perhaps all) of the management board have been dismissed by the board of directors.
It’s a pity. It’s nice well developed tech.